Tracey has been warned by doctors that SHE could drop dead at any moment after a lifetime of junk food

When 16-year-old Jeniffer Hogarth became the youngest Briton ever to have a gastric bypass no one was happier than her mum Tracey.

After years of watching her only child eat herself to the brink of death, she was delighted to see her lose more than 12 stone in just over a year.

But, while her daughter has slimmed from a morbidly obese 23st to her target weight of 11st 7lb, Tracey has been warned by doctors that SHE could drop dead at any moment after a lifetime of junk food, takeaways, fizzy drinks and sweets.

“I’m a ticking time-bomb and I might just have days, weeks or months left,” says Tracey, who has hit 22 stone.

“I’m so proud of Jeniffer. But while she’s managed to save herself, I think it’s too late for me.

“I just wish I’d listened to all the doctors’ warnings. My mind wants to live but my body wants to kill me.”

Jk press

Before gastric band: Jeniffer Hogarth aged 16 was obese

Tracey, 38, has had five strokes and three heart attacks and is unlikely to see her 40th birthday.

Doctors say she is too old and ­unhealthy to survive the surgery that saved Jeniffer. It takes 22 drugs, hourly insulin jabs and 15 hours of oxygen a day to keep Tracey alive. She can walk no more than 20 metres.

Tracey, from North Shields, Tyne & Wear, was diagnosed with life-threatening Type 1 diabetes as a child but ignored doctors, eating what she wanted and going out boozing.

At 16, she collapsed in a diabetic coma and was on life support for six months. “My weight fell to six stone but as soon as I got home I was eating junk food, crisps and anything with sugar in it,” she says.

At 25, she was told she had an ­incurable heart disease as a result of her binge eating. Yet despite it all, she still eats her favourite unhealthy foods. She has slimmed down to 15st 7lbs over the last year, but it’s too late.

“I see Jeniffer so slim and think it could have been me,” she says.

Her drama student daughter, now 18, had a £12,000 gastric band op on the NHS soon after her 16th birthday. She had ballooned to a 23st size 30 by eating an incredible 3,000 calories a day, including oven chips for breakfast and up to 10 bags of crisps a day.

The surgery left her with a golf ball-sized stomach and she felt full after a tiny portion. After learning to cook fresh food and starting to exercise she lost a pound every day and is now a healthy size 12.

Tracey says: “I wanted to be around to watch Jeniffer grow up, get married and have kids. I won’t get to do that now. I’m just trying to spend quality time with her.”

Wiping away a tear, Jeniffer says: “I’ve come to terms with the fact that mum could die at any moment. I’m making the most of the fact she’s still there for me with advice and help.

“I was lucky to get surgery to stop me throwing food down my throat.”

Tracey adds: “If anyone is reading this and has been warned by their doctors... please listen to them and don’t end up like me.”